Sparky
by Eiko101
Summary: Desdemona is a physics and math nerd. She doesn't understand anything not related to science. So for the life of her she can't figure out why fate has decided to uproot her from her perfectly logical life to the One Piece universe. A place where the men run around wearing no shirts and knowing Newton is not going to help you survive.But can Des show that world the power of science?
1. Chapter 1

The bell rang. Sighing, gathered my books and left the classroom. God I hated Advanced Art; it made no sense to me. People would look at pictures and interpret all sorts of deep and apparently philosophical meanings but for me, when I looked at it, a pictured stared back. That's it.

I was a true math and science geek. Newton, Pythagoras and Tesla –They were my friends. Calculations soothed and assured me there was a place where logic and common normality were used and appreciated. Yes, to some, Okay I lie. To many, I was a nerd. But, I think the biggest mark against me was that I was a nerd who liked what I was doing and didn't hide it from the world.

As I entered the lab I inhaled deeply, breathing in all the different acids and bases. The blond girl that walked in next looked at me like I was a freak. Which I suppose I was. Aside from being a mental and intellectual freak, I was weirdly NOT gifted with good looks.

I had black, long hair that was the bushiest thing I'm sure that walked the planet; it could give Einstein's hair a run for its money. And that was on the day it HAD product in it. I was also super short. Like the short when you just make the cutoff for the adult rollercoasters. Another thing was that I wore the biggest and thickest nerd glasses imaginable. Think _It's a Bug's Life for u_. However, the one thing I liked to boast about were my eyes. They were a kaleidoscope of the colour green. My dad used to say if you wanted to know every shade of green that was available to you, you should look at my eyes. My eyes started with an aqua green on the borders and became darker as it neared my pupils. On some days there were times where the dark green colours of my eyes mashed together and made my pupils look huge. As you can imagine, this did not help to get rid of the bugsy look.

"Desdemona, please can you take your seat." Mr. Macmillan, the science teacher, said.

I realized with a start that I'd been staring into space like an idiot –much to the amusement of my class. I flushed, looked down and hurried to my seat. I sat down next to my partner Chad. He too was a nerd like me but he was into geekier things such as anime and manga. I looked over to him and saw he was reading One Piece. I was not such a manga or anime fan, but in my circles it was very popular. All I knew about One Piece was that it was incredibly popular and that it was about pirates. There was no mainland in their world, just islands. I shuddered at the thought. For me an alternate universe was beyond my comprehension. Sure an alternate universe was probable with a few physics and maths law but still even for me the physics worshiper it was a farfetched idea.

During the class, Mr. Macmillan continued our lecture about electricity and electromagnetic fields. I lost myself in his lecture and for a while I was in my happy place. But too soon the bell rang again signalling the end of our physics period. Next period was Chemistry and then Advanced Trigonometry. It was looking to be a good day.

"Desdemona, can you please stay behind for a minute," called Mr. Macmillan from the front of the class.

I winced internally. I hated my name. It really signified my existence as it meant "ill-fated one". I preferred to be called Des. Although I didn't pay attention to my suggested nickname as the only one who called me Des was my cat. Well, I believed he called me Des. I mean, I was the only one who fed him in our house; he needed to repay my favour somehow.

"What's up Mr. M?" I asked him as I got to the front of the class.

"I liked your paper on the applications of electromagnets It was an incredibly well thought out paper," he told me.

Ah, that paper. It was one of my fascination areas within physics. It theorized that electricity could be used to power any sort of metal4 and thus by borrowing the theory of Fleming's momentum if fired it would achieve the same sort of destructive power as a nuclear warhead. I based the whole paper of research on something called a "railgun**"**. A railgun is an electromagnetic projectile launcher. Comprised of two rails with a conductive projectile, a current passed though it induces a magnetic field. The combination of the current and the magnetic field produces a Lorentz force which propels the projectile at speeds of up to 2.4 kilometres a second. However, even in 2013, humans still couldn't perfect this technology. It was too expensive to build and not realistic for the kind of warfare Humans could wage. Which was a pity. I believed that it was a beautiful application of electromagnetic theory.

"…So would you be interested in joining me to NASA to view their project?" Mr. Macmillan asked.

I blinked at him, not sure whether I should nod or not as I kind of phased out in his conversation. I then nodded at him as his sentence included "NASA". I was a geek. I could guarantee anything to do with NASA would interest me.

"That's brilliant. We leave tomorrow at 2 pm. A friend of mine will show us around. Don't forget Desdemona, 2 pm sharp, tomorrow," Mr. Macmillan said.

"Yes sir, thank you sir," I said and walked out of the class.

I hurried to Chemistry wondering if we would be doing any Lab work. While Chemistry was not my favorite, it was far better than Advanced Art for me. And what's more, Chad was my chem partner as well so it was a good class knowing I could sit with someone familiar.

Walking into class I saw they had already started. I hurried to my desk hoping Mrs. Patel would not see me. I grabbed my lab coat and pretended to stare at some chemicals as if I knew what I was doing. Chad gave me a side-glance as I sat at our table. I knew that look. It was practiced by anyone who was a geek.

It said, "You're late and I'm going to have to cover for you. You're an inconvenience."

I shrugged at Chad and saw Mrs. Patel walking to our table. Shit. She knew I was late. I grabbed a beaker at our table and proceeded to empty out the content into the flask that was boiling on the Bunsen burner. It wasn't the smartest of ideas but I knew nothing bad would happen as Mrs. Patel rarely gave us dangerous chemicals to experiment with. According to her: "18 year olds are entirely too dumb and too young to handle any sort of things that are liable to go boom." My small distraction didn't work as she walked to our table and began to speak in her naturally nails-on-a-chalkboard voice.

"Desdemona, why are you late for my class without an excuse letter?" she asked.

Ignoring the insane urge to tell her we were 18 year olds and not small kids who needed letters, I opened my mouth and went completely blank. Mrs. Patel hated the excuse "another teacher needed to see me" purely because it was used by people who were just late for class.

We were both so busy trying to outstare one another we failed to notice that the concoction that I created was bubbling away and was about to explode. To my misfortune Chad didn't notice either and we only noticed when one of the other students shouted, "Dangerous experiment. Hit the deck!"

Mrs. Patel and I turned to watch the beaker explode; and were entirely too late to duck behind the lab tables. The beaker exploded and glass and the fuzzy blue liquid splashed all over us. A piece of glass hit my head extremely hard and then everything went completely black.

_**A/N:**__** Hello Everyone. I'm back and with a new story. Don't worry about my other stories. I'm definitely going to finish them but for now I do hope you enjoy this one. Let me know what you think. Credits to my amazing friend for helping me with this.**_


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing I heard was the sea. This made no sense to me as the city that I lived in was landlocked by approximately 700 miles on all sides. Fuzzily I opened my eyes to an incredibly bright blue sky. It was a blue that I only saw in the dreaded Advanced Art. I got up moaning at the pain in my head. It seemed the glass had hit a place above my eye as there was dried blood on my face. I looked around and noticed I was on a deserted beach. Sand and an aqua blue sea surrounded me; the inland of the island lead to some tropical jungle. There was not a soul in sight.

A brief admiration filled me then panic sat in. Wait, what? I'm staring at a beach, when not just a few moments ago, I was in my chemistry classroom. For a moment ,my mind went blank. The word "beach" just repeated in my head and I internally freaked for a while until my logical and reasonable side took over. I knew that I had never stayed in the outdoors for long. I didn't even know how to create a fire. I was an electricity dependent freak. I'd never even gone camping for God's sake. The only thing that I could do that didn't involve science or math was hurdles, and a good lot that helped me with. It wasn't like I could jump over a few logs and then survive.

I got up wincing at my head wound. It throbbed painfully, so I took it that it was still open. According to my tentative finger experiment it just seemed a big enough cut for a single stitch. I sighed and began walking towards the jungle. Hopefully I could find a big enough tree to sleep in or maybe some fruit to munch. At least my legs and arms were strong enough from hurdles to climb a tree.

The jungle was wet and loud. It was also very dense I wasn't even dressed for a jaunt in a jungle. I had on light blue jeans and black pumps with my favorite t-shirt, which said 'May the mass times acceleration be with you.' I didn't stray too far into the jungle, as I knew logically the beach would be the best rendezvous point. So far I had come across no animals. But that was good and bad. Good because I didn't want to be supper, but bad because I had no animals to follow for a viable food source.

After an hour of searching I finally came across an animal. Lucky for me it seemed like a monkey of some sort. It inquisitively regarded me as I regarded it. And it had a banana in its hand. Success! At this point I was exhausted. I was never a long distance person. I was a hurdler for God's sake – 400m at a dead sprint was my best distance. I carefully approached the monkey, hoping that because it had never seen a human it wouldn't be scared. It kept up its silent vigil as I came closer, but as soon as I was about a meter away from it, it cheerfully chattered and retreated further into the jungle. I cursed at it. The stupid thing didn't understand. I was tired, hungry, and hot. And this stupid unknown variable of a monkey kept on retreating further the minute I grew closer than 1 meter to it.

I briefly wondered if it was a mathematician. Surely no monkey would know how to calculate an instant distance of 1 meter. Finally my relentless pursuit led me to a tree. But this tree was very weird. It appeared to be a banana tree, easily identified by its leaves, but the single banana attached to it was fairly large – easily greater than the span of both my hands. However, that wasn't the weirdest thing about it. It was covered with large dots. It looked like a polka dot banana.

I looked at it and the monkey that was staring at me. Its gaze almost seemed to say, "You wanted a banana. So here's one. Are you going to eat it?"

The weird thing was the banana in his hand had no patterns on it and appeared to be quite a normal size. I shrugged. Surely the animal led me to the fruit so that meant that it was safe. I was no expert of animal behavior though. Biology for me was secretly doing my physics or math homework in it. But what the heck? People said I should live a little, so I'd start in small steps. Eating unknown fruit today, skydiving tomorrow. I climbed up the tree and slowly leaned to the branch holding the fruit. The monkey below me grinned up at me. I found this to be a little suspicious, but I'd come too far to fall back now – literally.

I grabbed the fruit and climbed down the tree carefully. I tried to peel the banana, but couldn't. By now I was ravenously hungry and threw away any caution I had. I took a huge bite out of the banana, skin and all. I consumed the fruit in less than a minute when the taste hit me. I gagged and fell to the floor. I tried to retch out the awful tasting fruit but my tummy was refusing to let go of what little sustenance it gained.

I got up and still the monkey was there, watching me. If its grin was big before now it was huge, blinding even, as if it knew what awful tasting experience I had gone through. I threw it a hateful glance and turned to walk back to the beach leaving behind me the tree of the awful tasting banana and the grinning monkey.

At the beach I found a tree that was high enough to rest in. My adventure in the forest took what seemed to be the whole day, so I sat in my tree and watched the nightfall. I decided tomorrow to see how big the island was by following the beach, or to see if I could find any people.

I woke up to the sound of people talking. I was so surprised that I nearly fell down the tree, but I caught myself at the last moment. I looked over the branches and saw two people walking. It was a young boy about 12 years old with an old man who, despite his age, looked quite sturdy. They were human beings. Actual human beings. I dropped down from my tree and ran towards them hoping against hope they could give me some help to go back home. As you can imagine both the boy and old man look surprised to see a young girl dropping from a tree.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see some actual people," I babbled to the boys, my relief making my voice rushed.

"Oh hello young miss. I wasn't aware there was anyone on this island. I didn't see your boat, how did you come here?" the old man asked.

"I don't know. At one moment I was in school and the next I was on this beach in the middle of nowhere. Can you please take me to a town or something? My parents will be worried sick," I replied.

The old man looked troubled but nodded. "Of course young miss, we can take you back to our home town Olgia. You can call me Frank, and this young man is Tommy."

"Thank you, thank you so much. My name is Desdemona but please call me Des," I babbled to them once more.

I followed the old man and the young boy back to their boat. It was quite far from the place where I slept. All the way the young man Tommy told me how, when he got older, he would join the marines and help fight pirates. I nodded at his words, my mind whirring faster than the speed of sound. Where was I? On another continent? To my knowledge there were no pirates surrounding the USA in any form. Our Navy was one of the strongest in the world. And the word "marine" hadn't been used to describe the navy since the Cold War. But the most worrying thing was the way the boy talked as if the pirates were an enormous influence here. Almost as if they were another government or country. In the world that I knew Piracy was nearly extinct. They couldn't hide anywhere with satellite tracking. And our weapons and navy had evolved from canons to automatic guns and tracking missiles. For heaven's sake, the only sort of pirates I knew were Somali pirates. That was just one kind, but the boy talked as if there were hundreds upon hundreds of them.

Finally we reached Frank and Tommy's boat. It was in shallow water and clearly was a simple fishing vessel. I walked into the water and fell to my knees at the sudden weakness that filled my body. It felt as if I couldn't move. I struggled through this feeling knowing it was because my body for 24 hours no had no sort of full sustenance and only a fitful sleep. I finally reached the boat and collapsed inside.

Frank gave me a look of pity and told me I could rest until we reached the island. He then proceeded to take both oars and row us out to sea. I was surprised. No wonder this old man looked sturdy despite his age. The paddle strokes were strong and fell into an automatic rhythm. Frank had spent his whole life at sea so his body was strong. With the lulling waves and the soothing sound of the paddles hitting the water, I fell asleep just three hours after waking up.

**A/N: Hey everyone. So I decided to update today as a special treat for those who read my story yesterday. But be warned after this it's an update every 7 days. Thank you to every one who Favourited or followed. Do read and review.**

**Eiko**


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up to a gentle nudge My head was still disoriented and I didn't know where I was. I then heard a yelp of pain and looked toward the sound of it. Tommy was kneeling next to me and his face had a look of pain.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"You shocked me," he replied.

"I'm sorry. It was probably because of the friction in this bushy hair of mine," I told him.

He acknowledged my point with a nod of his head and told me, "It's good you're up. We're here at Olgia, the town my family and I live in. You were really deeply asleep and were talking about this guy "Newton". Who's he? Is he your boyfriend? Because you mentioned his name a lot."

My cheeks bloomed with red hue and I looked at Tommy with a mixture of embarrassment and incredulity. Sure Tommy was young but he looked the age to be in primary school. Shouldn't he know who about Newton? I mean, I knew the younger generations were getting dumber by the day, but this was really bad. Not knowing who Newton was, to me, was like using God's name in vain. Resolving to educate Tommy about Newton at a later stage I stepped off the boat and looked around curiously at Olgia.

The town was built like a small Italian city. The roads were paved with stone and the double storey houses with balconies were painted with bright colours. There were flowers everywhere and the town folk were all chatting together while a lively music played in the background. I looked around. This was definitely not my country. For one there was no rap anywhere, not a single sign of McD's anywhere, and everything looked incredibly old fashioned.

"Come on. Grandma wanted to meet you," Tommy said to me indicating that I should follow him.

I followed him, taking more notes of the town. Everything seemed so old fashioned. No one here walked with a cell phone in his or her hand and everyone seemed super friendly. Also the lamps on the street appeared to be gas lamps. That indicated a lack of electricity. I shuddered. Where exactly in the world did I land to get to a place with no electricity? Where in the world was there no electricity? South Africa perhaps? But no one here appeared to be in any form or way African. And more importantly, how did I get here?

I caught up next to Tommy and asked him the first question on my mind.

"Hey Tommy, You said you live with your grandparents. Where are your mom and dad?"

Tommy didn't answer for a moment. I thought to myself I had put my foot in it again. But I couldn't help it. It was my natural scientific curious nature. Tommy then replied in such a soft voice that I strained to hear what he said, "My parents are not with me in this world."

After saying this Tommy looked at me with a somewhat artificial smile and said, "You know what? I just realized that Grandma wanted me to pick up a few things in the market. Can you wait here for my Grandad. He's just gone to get the rope to tie up the boat."

Tommy then left me standing in the middle of the town. I was startled at this kind of behavior. The kid appeared to be a good kid even though he left helpless strangers in distant and unknown places. As I stood waiting around for Frank, I looked around the town again. I took note that the fashion sense of the people appeared to be quite modern. Another thing that stood out in this town was there was quite a lot of pubs and bistros (I believed that is what they were called).

"Des, Sorry to make you wait," a voice said, snapping me out of my musings. I looked up, startled. Oh it was only uncle Frank.

"Shall we get walking?" he said.

We walked in silence until uncle Frank said, "I'm guessing you asked about the boy's parents, as that is the only thing in this world that will get him that upset."

I began to apologize when Frank just brushed my apologies away with his hand. "No, I understand you didn't mean to. Tommy was, and still is, a good kid. He loved his parents a lot, but saw them being taken away from him at a young age. It was a pirate raid. That's why Tommy wants to join the marines so badly. He wants revenge for his parents. But to be honest my wife and I don't want that sort of life for him. Tommy is young and doesn't realize there is more to the marines than meet the eye. Plus it's a bloody life and one that can't bring you eternal happiness. But regardless, Tommy hangs on to his pledge to becoming a marine, as in his heart that is how he can make his parents proud. My wife and I respect that desire and goal even though we may not agree with it."

I kept quiet after hearing tommy's tale. What could I say? Somehow 'I'm sorry for his loss' didn't quite cut it. Tommy's tale made my backstory of social pariah make me look like a princess looking at my happily ever after. I was never good at dealing with emotions. I didn't understand humans so well despite being one. I understood formulae, laws and calculations, but at times like this I was beyond useless. We walked in silence.

After a while we reached Tommy's house. It was a homey place that had a large front yard and greenhouse. Tommy was there waiting for us on the poach and then he proceeded to knocked at the door and then opened it calling out "we're home" to the house's inhabitants. A woman came out from one the rooms. She was old and short. I mean even shorter than me.

"Aah Tommy you're home. And you brought a guest. Such a lovely girl. Why don't you introduce her?" she spoke to Tommy.

"Grandma, this is Des. We found her by the island and she needs a place to stay until she gets home," Tommy said. He then turned to me and said, "Des this is my grandma. Call her grandma. Be warned, her cookies are legendary. Almost as big as the legend of One Piece, and she has a mean punch."

"I'm pleased to meet you. Thank you so…" I began to say until my mind clicked on completely to what Tommy said, 'Almost as big as the legend of One Piece'. No, it couldn't be. It was impossible. It defied all natural laws of physics, mathematics and chemistry. There was no way I could have landed in the manga of my chemistry partner. I slowly turned to Tommy and asked in an extremely quiet voice… "Tommy, tell me, is there any mainland in any of the oceans. Or are they all islands?"

Tommy looked at me funny. He then replied, "They are all islands. There has never been a mention of the mainland since the void century."

Then everything went black.

**A/N: Hey everyone. Yes this is a relatively short chapter but I'm hoping to build a strong foundation for our story. Don't worry I promise action soon. On a side note I ask everyone to keep my country in their prayers. Our hero has passed on and we lost one of our most beloved leaders.**

**Thank you to everyone who favourited or reviewed or followed. Please do continue to do so. Remember reviews equal longer chapters.**

**Eiko**


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up again in a strange place. Ever since I came to this world I kept on waking up in unknown places. I looked around. It appeared I was in a small room. There was a bed, a mirror and a small dresser. My stomach grumbled reminding me that I now hadn't eaten in over 26 hours. I walked out of the room and found the kitchen. Tommy's grandma was there, but I saw no sign of Frank or Tommy.

"Aah, Des-chan. You are awake. I'm glad to see that. Come sit and have some soup and fresh bread. I must admit, you gave me and Tommy a fright when you passed out like that," she said to me.

I gratefully nodded at her and sank into the seat at the table. I then picked up the spoon and devoured the soup and fresh bread. It was the best tasting meal I ever had. Better then a $100 meal in NYC. Grandma watched me in silence as I devoured her meal. When the last drop was taken from my bowl, I then spoke to her.

"Thank you so much for the meal. I don't how I'm going to repay you but thank you again. It was one of the best tasting meals I've ever had."

She looked at me and smiled, the lines around her eyes crinkling. "It's no problem my dear child. Now that you've had a nice hot meal, why don't you have a bath? It looks like you need one," she said.

Once I showed my assent she got up and motioned for me to follow her. She then proceeded to lead me to one of the rooms with a wooden bath. There were coals surrounding a bucket and a towel and bathrobe on the rail behind it.

"I took the liberty of heating the water for you," she said to me, "and there's the soap and shampoo. Have a nice bath dear. I shall leave out a set of nightclothes for you and a change of underpants in your room once you're done."

"Thank you again so much," I told her and then proceeded to take a nice long bath. After I came out of the bath and changed I found all three members of the family sitting in what was obviously their lounge. Grandma was knitting while Frank was smoking a pipe and reading what appeared to be the newspaper. Tommy was reading a book. All three looked up at me when I entered the room.

"Aah dear, you look so much better. Come in and sit by the fire here," Grandma said to me. I sat down next to the fire and stared into the flames.

"So are you going to tell us how you got on that island? Or even which island you're from?" Tommy asked suddenly

"Tommy!" his grandma exclaimed at him.

"No, he's right to ask all those questions. After all, while I truly appreciate your help, I am a stranger in your home," I told the family of three.

"To be honest, I truly don't know how I got to that island. The one moment I was at school in class when a few chemicals suddenly exploded. The liquid exploded all over my teacher and me. Because of the glass I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was on that island and no one was with me. And I know what I'm going to say next sounds completely strange, but I came from a place where there is a mainland. My town is landlocked by the sea 700 miles in any direction," I said.

"Your tale is certainly unique. I have had heard of places of learning where children gather but to my knowledge it's for the Celestial Dragons and rich children. No offence my dear but you certainly don't look like a rich princess," Frank said.

"No, I'm certainly not some rich princess Frank, and to be honest I have no idea on how to get home. But maybe I can research a way to get home. Are there any places of learning on this island?" I asked.

"Yes. There certainly is. There was Ohara, the biggest island of learning, but it perished under the buster call when I was about 40 years old. However, I have heard that the Maiden Island and Arabasta had great library achieves and you can always try Mariejois. But that may be quite hard to get to," Frank replied.

Tommy looked at me, but said to his grandpa, "But grandpa, the Maiden Island is a near myth and Arabasta is on the other side of the Grand Line. Des will have to cross the red line and travel all the way back."

Turning to me Tommy then said, "Your best bet in Marejois however, it's going to be extremely difficult to get in there since you're neither a marine nor a Celestial Dragon."

"Fine, it's decided. Tomorrow morning. I can find work and try to find a place to stay until I get enough money to travel to Mariejois," I said.

Grandma, who had been quiet our whole discussion then said, "Nonsense dear, by all means you can go find work but you can stay here with us. We haven't had a young girl in this house for too long a time and this way I can make sure you're eating," Frank and Tommy nodded at her words.

"Ok," I said. "Thank you so much for your hospitality. Now please excuse me. I'm still feeling really tired and would like to go sleep. Goodnight." Replies to my greeting followed me as I walked to my room and lied down on my bed.

The next morning I woke up feeling refreshed. I walked into the kitchen to see grandma cooking breakfast for both Tommy and Frank. They were both dressed up in the fishing gear they wore yesterday. Upon seeing my inquisitive gaze Frank remarked to me in an amused voice, "Going fishing. Didn't catch anything yesterday but a skinny girl. Somehow I don't think she's going to fetch a good price in the market so hopefully Tommy and I will get lucky today."

I blushed in embarrassment and Grandma reprimanded Frank, saying, "Don't tease the girl Frank. She's been through enough."

Grandma then turned to me and said, "Eat up your breakfast dear and then we're going to look at Lily's old clothes. I'm sure there's something there that will fit you."

I nodded at her and returned to my meal. Afterwards, Frank and Tommy left the house calling out goodbyes. When I was done I followed Grandma to my room. There she opened the cupboard and a bunch of girl's clothes stared at me. Motioning to the set of draws next to the cupboard she told me that undies and pajamas were in there. She then proceeded to take a few outfits. Luckily all of them appeared to be my size. Tommy's mom must have been short too. I looked at them critically and took out a pair of denim shorts and a pair of black chucks. I wanted to keep my old t-shirt on as it reminded me of home with Newton's second law and the Star Wars reference. Grandma tutted at my choice and said I could wear the shirt after she washed it, so I just picked out an old white shirt. In the drawer I found an old knitted hat that had long strings attached to it. The hat was black and white and was quite cute with small fuzz balls attached to the end of the strings. I took it out thinking it would cover my electrostorm of hair.

Looking in the mirror, I was satisfied at my appearance. Despite changing worlds, I still looked like nerdy old me. I then approached the mirror and took off my glasses in order to tackle my hair. But when I took it off the strangest thing happened. My vision didn't grow murky or obscured like it normally did. Everything looked the same as if I had my glasses on. I then put on my glasses and took them off again. There was no change. I repeated the process. Still no change. This was physically not possible. I repeated the process again to ensure accurate results. There still was no change. I stared at the glasses in my hand. The universe wanted to laugh at me even more, so sending me to an alternate universe wasn't enough; my eyesight was now magically restored to 20/20 vision.

I looked at my glasses in my hand. I didn't need them but I felt strangely homesick looking at them. My glasses were a part of my nerd image and I resented this universe for taking away another thing from me. I carefully placed my glasses in the draw and walked out of the room. I hoped when I finally got home my vision would return to what it was. I was comfortable in my skin and hated to change it.

Grandma met me by the door and advised me to go to the book and map store in town. Apparently a woman called Skyla, who was a good friend of Frank and Grandma's, owned it, she was looking for someone to assist with her shop. Walking out the front door Grandma reminded me to be home for dinner at 6 pm.

The town once more surprised me as I walked through it keeping a eye out for the bookstore. It was so different from what I was used to. The sign, 'Marvelous Books and Maps' caught my eye in a side alley. I walked into the shop and a bell rang announcing my arrival. A beautiful blonde came from the back room. I felt my mouth drop as I first saw her. She was tall, buxom and had startling pair of blue eyes. She looked to be the type on the front cover of a magazine – not running a book and map store!

"Hi, you must be Desdemona. Frank and Tommy mentioned you before they went out to sea. I'm Skyla. Pleased to meet you," she said.

"Call me Des. Thank you for the job," I told her.

"It's not a problem. Now tell me, how much do you love books?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

So I started my first ever job in an alternate universe. I was in a distant land, surrounded by a strange people and a foreign sea. But for now everything was alright, purely because I was in a place of learning again.

**A/N: Hey guys. So i just finished writing another exciting chapter and thought to myself I can't wait for you guys to read it so let's get all the boring chapters out of the way. I promise this is the last one but it is a necessary one. We finally find out Des future goals.**

**A huge thanks to Brunetta6 and aqua-empress for reviewing every chapter. You guys are awesome. Where are all the other reviewers?**

**So guys press the button below this and let me know what you think of the overall story. Let's start with the 20 odd followers. More reviews results in unexpected surprises like this.**

**Eiko**


	5. Chapter 5

-Six days after landing in Olgia-

It had been a few days since I'd come to this strange world. With every day that passed I missed my home more and more, but everyone in the town made a good effort to welcome me into their lives. Grandma was always on my case to eat more at every meal and Frank, although he didn't say much, seemed like he too welcomed me into his home.

Every night Tommy and I would sit in front of the fireplace and I would tell him a little about my world. It seemed to fascinate him – hearing about things that he hadn't seen before. Although these talks left me with aching feeling in my chest I had no desire to turn away the eager 12-year-old's mind.

But the most surprising thing of all was I found a good friend in Skyla. It was surprising for me, as I never had any friends of the female variety, especially in humans. My cat counted; I think. Skyla was closer to my age at 22 years old and she was the sort of person, like me, that appreciated any sort or form of knowledge.

"Des-chan. You need to be at the shop soon. Skyla won't like it if you are late," I heard grandma calling from the kitchen. I sighed. It seemed that whenever I was in my room I reminisced on my life before coming here.

"Yes Grandma, I'm going. I'll be back for dinner," I called to her as I left the house.

It seemed a stroke of fortune that I began to work in a bookshop. Skyla didn't mind me taking home any of the books she had, as long I brought them back in 'tip-top condition'. It was the only way I learnt about the world that surrounded me. Skyla also didn't mind my curious questions about the world. Once I took home a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. It seemed, like any anime or manga that super powers existed in this world as well. And the price to pay for this enormous power was just not being able to swim.

I shuddered at the thought. No one picked up the fact the fruits were called Devil Fruit. Their very existence was against the laws of the universe itself. It was illogical how such fruit could change the matter of a body or transform any sort of organs. I'd even read about how some Devil Fruit would allow you to completely change your body into another form.

It wasn't possible in my universe and I had yet to see any Devil Fruit power in this town so I was skeptical of such a book. When I voiced my theory to Skyla she merely took a look at my face and laughed at me calling me "A brown-faced naive newbie to life".

I reached the shop and entered – the bell at the door jingling at my arrival. "Ahh Des, you're here. A new shipment of books came. They're at the back. Please can you unpack them," Skyla said. I sighed. Work in any form and in any place was always tedious.

-15 days after arriving at Olgia-

"Des-chan, please can you accompany Tommy to the market to pick up a few goods? I need a few good things from the market and Tommy will need help carrying them home," Grandma said.

"Ok Grandma. Coming," I said, putting the book I was reading down. It was a book about the importance of the World Government and why such an organization was required. To be honest I didn't like the book. It seemed I was reading a piece written by a spin-doctor instead of an investigative author.

I reached the door and saw Tommy was waiting for me. We both pulled on our jackets and set off for the market. Tommy and I were getting closer and it seemed the kid liked me even though I tended to go off on tangents about physics and math theories in our talks. We reached the market and decided to split up. I would go buy the vegetables and fruits that Grandma needed while Tommy would go buy the fish and meats we needed. Grandma was very surprised that I didn't know the first thing about cooking or shopping. When I told her that in my world girls my age didn't run homes or cooked she muttered "Blasphemous to allow a girl's education go unfinished like that." I didn't have the heart to tell her that there were people in my world that campaigned against women being only in the kitchen and despised the fact that girls' education should include culinary skills.

I finished the shopping for fruits and vegetables. When I walked to the meat section to get Tommy and go home I overheard someone saying:

"Aren't you a skinny person, Tommy? What's wrong? Don't your mom and dad feed you enough? Oh wait. That's right. You don't have a mom and dad. They're dead."

I hid behind a wall and peeked to see what was going on. I saw Tommy being surrounded by four boys. They all seemed to be around the age of 15. Tommy then spoke, "You don't know anything about my parents. Leave them alone. Leave me alone!" He proceeded to spit at the tallest boy.

I watched in shock as this boy pulled his arm back and proceeded to punch Tommy. The force behind the punch was so great that it knocked Tommy to the ground. When the boy raised his leg to kick Tommy while he was down, I then decided to step in.

"Four against one is a bit unfair, don't you think? Leave Tommy alone and go home."

The boys watched shocked as I stepped away from the wall. The tallest boy then proceeded to shout at me, "Who the hell are you? This brat has no one to care for him besides two old fools."

"My name is Des. And Tommy is my first friend. I'm not going to watch you beat up my first friend. Now scram," I said calmly to him, although mentally I wasn't so calm. My vision was tinting red and I felt like I'd been electrified. I could feel my hair frizzing even more.

After a brief moment, the leader said, "Let's get out of here. Leave this loser alone to his pathetic existence." They ran away.

Tommy watched silently at I approached him. I offered my hand and said, "Let's go home." I picked up our packets and walked away.

-20 days after landing in Olgia-

It was a beautiful day, the birds singing in the distance, the waves lapping gently on the shores, and I as usual was happily inside reading. Again it was a book about the One Piece universe, this time about the history of Gol D. Roger and his enormous legacy of the One Piece. Again this universe made no sense – pirates all over the world setting off to gain this treasure that might not exist at all. It was pure insanity. They were all insane.

My musings were interrupted by Tommy who barged in my room and said, "I've decided. I want to make a kite."

I looked at Tommy in astonishment. "Huh. Why do you want to make a kite?"

"Well yesterday, when you were talking about that Pyfag guy and said a practical application of his formulary would be a kite. You sounded like you knew how to make a kite. So let's make a kite," he replied.

"I said it would be a practical application Tommy, not that I know how to make it." I said.

"Please, pretty please, I swear on the admirals it will be fun," he begged.

"Ok fine." I gave in and stood up. "Let's go for some kite shopping."

In the end our kite turned out to be a disaster. According to Tommy it was my fault that our kite didn't want to fly but I argued with him that my calculations were perfect. I measured and calculated all the right-angled triangles correctly even though I had no calculator. We argued back and forth until Frank came home and took one good look at our kite and said that no matter how much we argued the thing wouldn't fly, as the paper we used was wrong. It was too heavy and had no strength to flex with the wind. Needless to say that was a good reminder that while the physics was perfect, sometimes miniscule small things like emotions or the wrong paper get in the way.

-35 days after arriving at Olgia-

I was at work when Tommy barged in for a visit. It was a quiet day and Skyla gave me the day off stating that I worked my skinny little butt off the day before so I had earned a break.

We walked to the nearby park and got ice creams from the vendor. This town lived up to its look of an Italian town as its ice creams were to die for.

"Hey Des, if you could have a Devil Fruit ability what would it be?" Tommy then asked out of the blue.

I looked at him and thought about my answer. My views hadn't changed since I read the encyclopedia so I answered him carefully. "Tommy, I rather like the fact I can swim, also all Devil Fruits have a weakness. What brought on this question?" I asked him.

Tommy was silent for a moment and then answered, "Today, those four boys cornered me again. They told me that I won't go far in the ranks of the marines without a Devil Fruit ability, and since those are extremely rare I might as well give up."

I winced at his answer. Ever since Frank told me about the marines I'd read up quite a bit about them and talked to Skyla too. It seemed while the marine's ideals were in fact good for humanity, not all marines or their methods achieved the best results for humanity. And how does one tell a 12-year-old boy that the organization he worships is corrupt?

"That's not true," I said to him. "There are plenty of marines who go far without a Devil Fruit ability. Think of Garp the Hero. He doesn't have an Devil Fruit ability and he stood up to Gol D. Roger." I was now extremely grateful that I read that book on pirates.

I continued to say, "Also, think about it. You can get some really useless Devil Fruit abilities out there. Like turning into rubber for instance. That's got to be a terrible ability to have. What can you do with that ability? Stretch your enemies to death? Or maybe another useless ability would be turning into a giraffe. What good can that do?"

Tommy serious face finally broke and he laughed as boy his age should. "Yeah," he said, "there are some real useless devil fruits out there. Like have you heard of the Supãku Supãku no mi. The name translates into the spark spark fruit. It's not a very intimidating name. There's also another one like the Gero Gero no Mi. It makes the user disgusting. That can't be helpful to fighting."

I made a funny face at Tommy's words and mockingly attacking him saying, "I don't know about that one. I mean you could scream in battle 'I'm disgusting! Fear me!'"

I then jumped on him and we fell to the floor trying to out tickle one another.

We laughed together once the Tickle War of Olgia was over. I was glad that his sudden depression was over. We then walked to Grandma's house for dinner only to be reprimanded for ruining our appetites with ice cream.

For now, Life was good.

**A/N: Hello everyone. Thank you for all the reviews and suggestions. I've taken them to heart and will endeavor to serve you the very best of my writing ability.**

**So this chapter is actually the beginning of our story. It's the catalyst- in Des's words- of the tale. Read it and tell me what you think. Love it or hate it. Review and let me know.**

**On a side note just wanted to tell everyone one I'm leaving for holiday on the 20th of December and only come back on the 7th of January. So there will be no updates during this time.**

**That's it folks. Now go on and write your opinion in the block below.**

**Eiko**


	6. Chapter 6

-45 days after landing in Olgia-

I was sitting in the park. Looking up at the sky it appeared to be a normal day. Or as normal as it could get for me, who had been in another world for a month already. It had been a month since I had come here to this strange place and ever since I hit the 40-day mark I had become more and more depressed as the days passed.

Depression to me was something I looked down upon. To me it was for the weak who couldn't handle what life threw at them. Yet I was depressed and I couldn't get over the fact that I was in another world torn away from everything I knew. I also believe everyone had noticed my depression over the past few days. Skyla had been extra nice to me; she had even given me my month's pay in advance. I tried to give some to Grandma and Frank to thank them for housing me, yet I got chased out of the kitchen with a rolling pin the minute I tried to broach the topic.

Tommy had been around me even more. He was truly now like a little brother to me. Every day we spent together was a good memory and made me wonder why I didn't seek friends in my other life. It was a wonderful feeling, calling someone a friend. But that again showed how pathetic my life was – that I had my first friend at the age of 18 and that friend was 12 years old.

Frank had even offered to teach me how to fish, calling it excellent "Thinking time", but I declined. I found a pair of old running shoes at the back of the cupboard and used them to run every day. It wasn't the same as hurdles but it kept my mind occupied, so by the time I had finished my run my mind was clear and ready to face the day.

Grandma told me about halfway through my stay that she would see to finishing my education. Now every day after supper she would get me to make a dessert of some sort. Contrary to my expectations, I wasn't bad in the kitchen. Cooking was a bit like chemistry. As long as you followed the instructions you were fine. But remembering my last chemistry lesson, perhaps it would be prudent not to compare my cooking to chemistry. Frank and Tommy were full of compliments the day I presented my own dish and said they both looked forward eagerly to my desserts.

I looked at the sky. It was the small things that hurt the most. The fact that there was no electricity was the biggest reminder I was in a different time. It was stupid, but electricity reminded me of home. It was associated with well-lit nights and physics textbooks.

"Des," I heard someone call my name. I looked to the source of the sound and saw it was Tommy calling me.

"Hey," he said as he neared me. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

I nodded and we walked away from the park and headed towards the north beaches. They were always empty as they were on the far side of the island and not in any way near the port. It was a hot day and I was wearing the outfit that Grandma arranged for me the day I arrived here, so I took off my cap with its fuzzy balls and tied it around the loop of my jeans. I was glad I had a pair of walking shoes.

We walked in silence. Tommy broke the silence first and said, "You know, after my parents died, I pushed everyone away. Grandpa and Grandma couldn't get to me. The village people and Skyla also tried, but I was angry. Angry and upset that it was my parents that died. I used to sit and sulk in my room the whole day. I ignored my grandma and grandpa. One day after I came from the bathroom I passed my grandparents' room. The door was closed but their voices carried through. I heard my grandpa trying to comfort my grandma but she wouldn't listen to him. All she kept repeating was that "Tommy isn't eating. My daughter is going to think I'm a failure of a grandma because I can't even comfort her son and get him to eat." I then realized how selfish I was. I wasn't the only person that lost my parents. Skyla had lost her older brother; Grandma and Grandpa lost their only daughter. Grief and misery makes us selfish and ugly Des."

I looked at Tommy startled. In all the time I stayed here he hadn't even mentioned his parents once and even after the bullying incident he never remarked on it. I only knew what Frank had told me.

I then asked him quietly, "Tommy, what exactly happened that day?"

Tommy looked at me and smiled a faint and weak smile. "Do you know you're the first person to ask me that to my face? But I'll tell you. There's a bench over there. Let's sit and I'll tell you."

We sat down and after a brief moment Tommy began to speak.

"When I was about six years old, my parents and I lived in a house next to my grandparents. We were a happy family. One day we decided to go fishing together as a family. We actually went to the island you were marooned at. We spent the whole day there and we came back when the sun was about to set. From a distance, we saw smoke coming from the city and thought something bad had happened like a fire or explosion or something. But it wasn't that. It was pirates who had come to pillage our town. This was the first time they had come to our island. We are a peaceful island and give help to anyone who asks of it. But the pirates had the intent to hurt and destroy. They were weak but they had an enormous amount of members. The pirates saw us coming to the bay and assumed that in the chaos of the day we had slipped away to go and warn the marines. They started screaming at us, telling us to tell them which base we went to. Naturally, we had no answer so in frustration they shot my dad first. I saw my dad die in front of me. They started screaming…"

Tommy's voice quivered and he suddenly stopped talking. I looked at him and saw that he had tears in his eyes. "Oh Tommy, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I'm sorry I made you tell me. You don't have to continue."

"No. It's okay. It is only by facing our past that we can be stronger in the future."

I stared at him, once again stunned by the wisdom of this little boy who was so much younger than me. After a little while I said, "Go on."

"They began to scream at my grandparents and no matter how we begged, they still didn't believe us. They aimed the gun at my grandpa and shot at him. But my mom jumped in the way and took the bullet for him. My grandpa had to watch his only daughter die for him. Luckily, the marines arrived along with an admiral. But it was too late for my mom. She bled to death in my grandpa's arms."

Tommy started crying now in earnest. Tears were streaming down his face and sobs came in gasping breaths.

"That is why I HATE pirates. They are all the scum of the sea. They ravage and pillage – not caring who they hurt when someone gets in their way. And I'm not the first orphan whose parents were killed by pirates. And I can guarantee you I'm not the last. That is why I'm going to join the marines and work my up to admiral. So I can make sure that there are no more orphans in this world due to such scum."

After hearing his story words escaped me. Tommy had such a sad tale yet the boy smiled every day. He got up in spite of the bullying and the hurt and fought to achieve his dream of joining the marines. He was a noble soul. And he was strong. One who fought for the sake of others and not for himself.

Finally, I spoke. "Tommy, you're like a little brother to me. And no matter where I go you can bet on that. I once read somewhere that there are some souls in the world who prefer solitude but there is no one who can withstand it.I promise Tommy I won't ever desire solitude again.I'll believe in the bond we have created in these past days and so should you. We won't ever forget each other. I'm sorry I was such a rain cloud these past few days. I forgot I wasn't alone. Forgive me?" I asked.

Tommy hugged me in silence and then said, "How about we get some ice cream? I hear you got some extra cash ever since Skyla paid you."

I mock gasped and playfully punched him in the arm. "That's why you're keeping me around. So you can use me for extra ice cream!" I exclaimed to him.

We both laughed and walked towards the town. We were in the town square when a man ran past us screaming, "PIRATES! PIRATES ARE APPROACHING THE TOWN!"

It was dead silent for a moment and then a building exploded as a cannonball hit it. Chaos descended and in this I lost sight of Tommy amongst the screaming.

**A/N: Hey everyone. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the early update. I'll be too busy packing tomorrow and Friday I leave. So I wish you all a very merry and blessed Christmas and a joyous New Year. For a christmas or new years gift you can leave me an review. I'll definitely appreciate it.****My Christmas and New Years gift to you is this wonderful cliffhanger.**

** For all my readers that have twitter follow me khaloopatel. I love to hear from you via tweets.**

**Saynora until the next update.**

**Eiko**


	7. Chapter 7

It was pure anarchy on the streets; the clear beautiful day had turned into an orchestra of screams, stampeding feet and exploding cannon shells.

In the chaos I remained a frozen figure. My mind kept on repeating a mantra of words, "Pirates, pirates are attacking."

I knew this world was significantly more dangerous than my old one, but there was always a naïve belief its danger wouldn't touch me here. The town hadn't been attacked for 6 years.6 years. In fact, I remember Skyla stating the last pirate attack was the one that claimed Tommy's parents' lives.

"Tommy." My heart dropped into my stomach. I lost him in chaos of the streets. He was just a small boy. This attack would bring back his worst memories and the desire for revenge. I needed to find him and make sure he was safe.

He was my friend, my brother.

I began to run towards Grandma's house hoping against all hope that Tommy would go there as well…

BANG!

A sudden blast took place in front of me and my body was thrown back in the aftermath until I had hit a wall. A screen of smoke and pain filled my eyes.

Slowly the smoke cleared and I looked towards the origin of the blaze when I noticed the canon shell had hit Skyla's book and map shop.

Painfully, I forced my body to rise, wincing at the amount of agony that was going through my body and walked towards the ruined building trying to see the damage. Skyla would be heartbroken. She loved her store.

As I walked towards the building looking at the wreckage, horror filled me as I saw a half mangled body in the rubble.

It was Skyla.

"Des, help me," she said in an anguished voice, raising her bloody arm.

Skyla's lower body was completely crushed from the rubble of the blast; her one arm was violently broken. I could see a bone sticking out. Her body resembleded a broken mannequin

I took a step back. This woman didn't look like Skyla. Skyla was filled with laughter and vibrancy that just sang life. This woman looked as if she was on her deathbed.

Blood pooled around her body and flowed down in little streams down the cobbled street. I took another step back. Was even possible for the human body to be filled with that much blood?

"Des, please stop the pain.

I took another step back. This wasn't Skyla. Skyla couldn't be dying in front of me.

"Des. I'm scared. I don't want to die."

Not Skyla. It wasn't Skyla. GODDAMMIT THIS WOMAN WASN'T SKYLA. I couldn't be witnessing someone I knew and respected dying in front of me.

"Des, please, please. Make it end."

Her tormented begging didn't end.

It didn't end.

Why didn't it end?

I turned around and I fled.

I ran and ran not caring where I was going as long as it was away. Away from the danger. Away from my friend dying. Begging for me to end her pain.

I couldn't see where I was running. All I knew was that I had to get escape from this town, from the screams that filled the air, from that smoke that stank of death and reeked of pain.

I pushed my body faster and faster. Skyla couldn't, wouldn't survive that. She would die buried amongst the rubble. My body's flight or fight instincts were coming into play. My mind screamed at me that Skyla was dead, but I was alive. I had to make sure I was alive. The town was a liability. I didn't even belong here so it was beyond unfair that I had to die here.

I ran and ran. I refused to stop until I couldn't hear the screams in the air any more. 'It's not safe to go back' my mind whispered to me. I agreed with it. I wasn't a fighter in this world. I wasn't even a citizen in this world. Its fights weren't mine. Skyla's death wasn't my problem.

I finally stopped running and noticed that I reached the same beach that Tommy and I visited earlier. I sank to my knees and started to cry.

I was scared. So very scared. I was 18 years old and didn't have my first kiss yet. I deserved to live. I didn't deserve to die in this world where no one truly knew me.

It was too early to be my end.

I didn't want to die.

Not me.

"…_Let's make a kite together."_ Suddenly my mind dredged up the memory of Tommy and I making the kite together. Laughing as the glue stuck our fingers together.

Tommy. Tommy was in there. He was in amongst the destroyed buildings and screaming crowds. No, I told my mind. Tommy is smart. He'll hide. He wouldn't get into trouble. Another part of my mind whispered traitorously to me, "But didn't you say that this attack would bring back his worst memories? Weren't you worried for the boy?"

I breathed in deeply and tried to unsuccessfully reassure myself. Tommy would be okay. I wasn't a coward to run away. I was human. Who could blame me for running?

"_You were really deeply asleep and were talking about this guy Newton. Who's he? Is he your boyfriend?" _Tommy's voice again filled my mind. He would be okay. I'm not a coward. I was pretty logical and looking after one's self wasn't a cowardly act…

It was self-preservation. Self-preservation was what kept people alive. But wasn't it also a symbol for a coward?

It WASN'T a coward's act. I sank deeper in my arms and tried to stop my body from shaking.

"…_You're like a little brother to me. And no matter where I go you can bet on that. Believe in the bonds we have created in this past 45 days and we won't ever forget each other." _

Tommy was my brother. He was my first friend. I couldn't leave it up to fate to try and protect him. I had to do it myself.

I was beyond scared, but it had to be done. I was Des – physics and math nerd. I could survive a storm of incoming cannonballs. I just had to do this thing like everything else I did. Logically.

Standing up slowly, I tied to quell my body shaking. I took a moment to inhale a deep breath and let it out. I repeated he process about seven times until the shaking stopped. And with that I began to run towards the town.

As I ran towards the town I noticed that the smoke plumes still filled the air but what unsettled me was there was an eerie silence that also filled the air. It was unexpectedly quiet. No exploding cannonballs and no screaming. The agonizing orchestra had stopped. My freak out couldn't have been that long. Why was everything so quiet?

As I neared the town I slowed down. I didn't want to make unnecessary noise. I crept across the ruined buildings. The hairs on my neck stood up. Some instinct told me to be very careful. I stood with my back against the wall and peeked from the corner of it. I surveyed the town square and noticed some people on the far side of it.

I breathed a sigh of relief; it was probably the town's people. I was just about to walk out and scream for them to help me search for Tommy when a hand covered my mouth and yanked me back.

Terror poured through my body. I immediately began thrashing, hoping to scream and get free.

"Shut it. Do you want them to come by us, Des?" A voiced asked.

I grew still at the sound of this voice. It was Tommy's voice.

I turned around elated at seeing him and immediately embraced him. "You're alive," I sighed to him, my happiness showing through my voice.

He too looked relieved at seeing me.

"Come. It's not safe here," he said. "Let's creep to see the pirates. It may give us a clue as to what we're dealing with."

In my relief of seeing him alive I forgot my resolve of getting us out of that hellhole and instead dumbly nodded at his words.

We crept along the well and slowly the pirates came into view.

We then began to hear their voices. "…And search the town. We need supplies and don't want any unnecessary surprises. Remember our mistake from the last time."

Tommy went white at hearing this voice. I prodded at him.

"What's wrong?"

He just shook his head quietly and crept closer to the pirates.

After observing them in a few moment of silence I asked him, "Well do you know of them?"

Tommy looked at me, he's eyes appeared as dark as a starless night.

"Know of them? Yeah you might say so. I know of them alright. These are the pirates that killed my parents."

_**A/N: Hello everyone. I wasn't expecting an Internet connection during my holiday but managed to find one. However it's incredibly slow-as expected for the desert - so it wouldn't upload the complete document so I had to chop it in half hence the short chapter. **_

_**I loved all of your reviews and hope you guys had an awesome Christmas and are planning an epic New Year.**_

_**As usual tell me what you think. Hate it or love it? Let me know…**_


	8. Chapter 8

After a while of watching the pirates, I realized that the more time we wasted here, the greater our probability of being discovered.

"Tommy. Let's get out of here. The longer we stay here, the greater our chance at being discover."

Tommy hadn't lost the dark look in his eyes and the longer I stared at him, the more I was convinced he was going to do something stupid.

"Okay, Des. Let's get out of here," he replied in an even tone. I sighed with relief. It seemed that stupidity wouldn't conquer him today.

We quietly crept away from the pirates until we put a good distance between them and us.

"Tommy, our best bet is to get home, get supplies with your grandparents and to hide out in the far side of the island," I told him in a reasonable voice hoping to get his mind away from the pirates.

Tommy didn't reply. He just kept quiet. This was extremely worrying for me. I didn't know how a person should react when they see their parents' killers, but the silence made me uneasy. It was unsettling.

We kept walking in the direction of home but on the way I kept glancing at Tommy. He had a blank look on his face, but his hands were in fists at his side.

His knuckles were turning white with the tension he held himself with.

We reached Tommy's house safely. But the house was eerily quiet. I then remembered that Grandma and Frank weren't home. They had left this morning saying they were going to visit a nearby island about two days travel away. I was glad that they weren't here during this chaos. I didn't want to know how Frank and Grandma were going to act after seeing their daughter and son-in-law's killers. One wildcard called Tommy was enough for me.

"Tommy, get warm clothes and a sleeping bag, we don't know how long we have to camp out," I called out to him as I walked into the kitchen.

I walked into the kitchen and opened the ice-box. Thank God that Grandma was gone. She prepared more then enough food for us in her absence. I began to gather what I hoped would not perish during our jungle stay, not knowing much as I'd never been camping before. I then heard Tommy's voice speak out behind me:

"We're running away like cowards. People are dying out there and you're making plans for us to run away! We're nothing but cowards!"

I turned around wincing. His words brought up a fairly recent memory I didn't want to deal with at the moment. I knew this confrontation and blowout would happen but I was hoping it would occur when we had already left the town. I began to speak in a calm tone hoping to soothe him.

"Tommy, we need to leave. Your parents wouldn't want you to die a senseless death. Not to mention Grandma would have my head if I let you go back to that."

"I don't care! Right now someone in this town could be made an orphan like I was last time and I swore that I would prevent that. What good of a marine would I be if I can't protect my own town?"

"Tommy. The fact of the matter is that you're NOT a marine. What can a 12 year old boy do against pirates who have been traveling the Grand Line for more than 6 years? YOU CAN DO NOTHING!" I finally screamed at him - my panic and fear getting the better of me.

Tommy turned at my words. My heart sank. I hoped my words would spur him into leaving but some other instinct told me it achieved the opposite effect.

"You're right," he said, "I can't do anything against the pirates. BUT the marines can. They can fight the pirates and force them to leave. I can actually do what the pirates thought my parents did 6 years ago. I'll contact the nearest marine base."

My heart sank lower at his words. I knew this would turn out as some sort of revenge for him. But then I thought about his reason and hoped logical reasoning would turn him away from this mad scheme.

"Tommy, how can you contact the marines? Your grandparents are gone with the boat and it looked like all the other boats were destroyed by the pirates when they entered port."

Tommy now looked even more gleeful at this and said "But this is the brilliant part. Across the town in the post building there's a Den Den Mushi connected directly to headquarters. We can use that to contact marine headquarters. And I'm betting the pirates don't know about it as no one expects this small town to have a Den Den Mushi with such importance."

"Tommy. This plan is madness. It'll never work. You'll have to go across the town square and pass the pirates before you get there. It's insane. Don't do it. You'll get yourself killed." I said, abandoning my logical reasoning and now purely begging.

Tommy looked at me with a determined face and said in a voice that had a tone of finality to it, "You can either help me or get out of my way! I'm not abandoning this idea. It's time I put my goal into action."

I looked at him with a sense of defeat and deliberated for a moment. It was clear I wouldn't win this argument.

I then replied in a clear voice: "Then it's settled. I'm coming with you. I'm not leaving my little brother with pirates and you'll need me to stop you doing anything even more stupid. Plus I value my life and if I let you go alone grandma will kill me and hang me out to dry."

Tommy looked happy at my words and without a word turned around and walked out of this house.

I sighed and ran to catch up with him. Ever since I landed up in an alternate universe my life had not a moment's peace.

"You've got to promise me you'll listen to me when we reach the town. And don't do anything stupid. If I tell you to run or shut up you do it," I told Tommy.

"Wow, Des. You're actually really brave and clever. You should become a marine. We could use you against battles with pirates."

I winced at Tommy's words. This boy thought I was brave but he didn't know earlier on I had run from his aunt's body. I had left her to die. I was anything but brave.

"Please. I'm not brave. If I tell you run, look ahead because I'll probably be running ahead of you," I told him hoping to make light of our situation.

We reached the town. I looked around. It was deserted. Not a soul in sight. This made me uneasy. Where was everybody? More importantly, where were the pirates?

They couldn't have left yet. It was only a half an hour ago when we heard the captain give the order to collect supplies for their ship. Tommy so far had been extremely quiet but whenever I looked behind me he was following me exactly the way I had been walking, so I wasn't about to complain.

I remembered the old post office. Skyla made me do a delivery there once. Skyla… I winced deeply and felt tears prick behind my eyes. I shooed the thought from my head. It wouldn't do for me to get distracted and think such morbid thoughts.

We reached the town square without incident and I was surprised at that. But that was when everything started to go downhill.

We were walking and suddenly I heard a noise in front of me. I swung around and grabbed Tommy and forced him to duck behind a building. We snuck around the building and got closer to the noise. It turned out it was the pirates and some civilians in one of the smaller squares in town.

Both of us peeked from our hiding place and saw a small family of three - a father, a mother and a small girl around the age of 4 - being accosted by the pirates. Tommy instantly stiffened. I grabbed the back of his t-shirt and shot him a warning look. If he did anything our whole plan would be shot back to hell.

"…Leave my family alone. We don't have any more money," I heard the father say to the pirates.

A man who I guessed was the captain sneered at him. "We know you're the richest family here on this island. We just want all your wealth; you can walk away with your lives."

"Please. That's all we have. We're not that rich," a female voice pleaded. I guessed that was the mother.

Tommy went stiffer and stiffer with every word that was exchanged. I shot him a look. This couldn't be healthy - being so close to the people that killed his parents. No correction. This was just plain insanity.

"Tcchh. So you won't talk. Fine. Start with the father. Rough him up good boys!" the captain ordered.

I winced. I wanted so badly to stop this. To make amends for my previous action. But I couldn't. I couldn't place Tommy's life in danger like this and I was powerless. I didn't know how to fight but only to run.

A series of grunts, the child's sobs and the mother's screams for the pirates to stop filled the air for a while. I just dug myself deeper into the wall and prayed the pirate would be satisfied at the pain that they were inflicting and go away lest they discover us.

"Fine. He won't talk. KILL HIM!"

I barely heard the order from the captain's lips when Tommy escaped from my grasp and ran out to where the pirates and the family were.

"STOP! HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY MONEY. LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Tommy's voice filled the air.

There was a pause and then I heard the captain's voice:

"Ahh, a brat? Move brat! This has nothing to do with you."

"NO! I WON'T MOVE FOR PIRATE SCUM LIKE YOU! All you do is pillage and ravage and kill. You make me sick!"

I winced in my hiding spot. No pirate would think kindly of a person who insulted him or her so badly. I desperately tried to think of a way out of this situation but nothing came up.

All of a sudden I felt a hand grip me on my shoulder. It pulled me harshly up. Shit! In my worry I forgot to watch my back.

"Oi Boss. We found another one over here," the pirate gripping me called.

"Well you idiots. Bring them here. Let's get a good look at our eavesdroppers. I don't think their parents taught them manners."

The pirate dragged me to where Tommy and the family was. I saw the father lying down in a rapidly growing pool of blood and instantly felt sick. Skyla's body came to mind. My breakfast was threatening to make an appearance. My eyes then switched to Tommy and scanned him. To my relief he looked fine and didn't acquire any new bruises. He was standing in front of the mother and child and despite his 12-year-old body his face promised pain to anyone who looked at the family badly.

The captain gestured to Tommy and me and said, "Leave them there. We'll deal with them as soon as we're done with this family here."

I didn't say anything in response to this but Tommy did despite me in my mind chanting to him to shut up.

"LIKE HELL I'LL MOVE FOR PIRATE SCUM! People who don't know the meaning of love or life!" he screamed at the captain.

The captain sneered at Tommy and it promised him a world of pain if he didn't take back his words. "What did you say brat? Maybe if you get on your knees and bow to me I'll forgive your words."

His men behind us laughed and jeered at Tommy. Some screamed, "Make him kneel boss."

Tommy sneered right back at the captain and said in a deathly quiet voice: "I said, like hell would I move for pirate scum and like hell would I bow to them."

My heart which was beating at extremely fast rate now began to sprint. My hands were clammy and my mouth went dry. NO, this couldn't be happening.

"Please please Tommy do as he says. This people are pirates. They won't show mercy," I thought to myself.

The silence stretched across the town. Both the 12 year old boy and the pirate captain engaged in a staring match. Strangely the pirate men behind us fell quiet.

"So. You won't kneel brat. I'll teach you how to kneel."

The captain then took out a gun. Time slowed completely and all I could hear was the gun and the beating of my heart…

**Pump.**

The gun was now shoulder level with the pirate but still Tommy stood bravely - not moving and inch. I couldn't move. The pirate behind me kept a firm grip that I couldn't break.

**Pump.**

Tommy spared a quick glance at me and smiled as if after this we'd go and make another kite together. Please someone help us. Tommy can't die.

**Pump.**

The pirate clicked his gun back and took aim. NO. I had to stop this. Someone help us!

**Pump.**

The smell of ozone was in the air and my hair bristled. NO. NO. NO. Tommy was about to die. He was my friend. He couldn't die.

**Pump.**

"Goodbye brat. This is the end."

NO! NO! NO!

**Pump.**

I saw his finger release the trigger.

"STOP!" I screamed and a flash of blue light filled the air

A gunshot sounded.

_A/N: No words needed except read and review._


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